angelbaka
11-26-2015, 07:44 AM
This deck originally came about when I decided to build Death and Taxes and realized I hated the deck. No, really, D&T is a terrible deck; play something better.
Regardless of what the deck WAS, what is is now is a boat full of hate, capable of playing through almost anything to lock an opponent out of the game and kill people dead. It has game against every single tier-one deck, most of them with extremely positive matchups, and is just generally brutal against Legacy as a format. The game plan is fairly simple: Get to three mana (preferably turn one), play a game-breaking hate card, kill your opponent. The deck plays a powerful and diverse hate suit, and plays it more effectively than any other deck in the format.
With that out of the way, here's the current list:
// Deck: Moxen Mass (NoG Mass) (60)
// Lands
1 Ancient Den
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Glimmervoid
1 Great Furnace
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
4 Wasteland
// Creatures
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Notion Thief
// Sorceries
4 Day's Undoing
4 Vindicate
// Enchantments
3 Ghirapur Ęther Grid
// Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal
3 Trinisphere
// Planeswalkers
1 Dack Fayden
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Academy Ruins
SB: 2 Aura of Silence
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 1 Dack Fayden
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Meddling Mage
SB: 2 Spellskite
The Card Choices
Maindeck
The Mana
Wasteland & Ghost Quarter: These are your primary mana denial plan. Also phenomenal at killing utility lands of all stripes. Ghost Quarter are wastelands 5-8; any deck that GQ isn't a strip mine against has plenty of utility lands that you want to kill anyway or plays Blood Moon (or is called Miracles, but we'll get to that.)
Artifact Lands (Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Ancient Den, Vault of Whispers): These help fix your mana, turn on Mox Opal, give you lands to hit with Tezzeret, and kill people with Grid. Worth considering playing more that 4, but null rod is a real card and we only want to get blown out so much.
Ancient Tomb: The Sol Land of choice. The life loss is non-ideal, but it's one last way to hit three mana turn one, makes 4 mana turn one much more feasible, and helps you power out rocks and spells under a 3ball. Also helps get you where you need to be if they play Null Rod//Chalice on 0.
Glimmervoid: Effectively a zero-downside rainbow land. There will be awkward hands where getting your turn one play forced means losing your Voids. This just hammers home how important sequencing is with this deck.
The Hate
Aven Mindcensor: The keystone for the land destruction package. The search hate is effective and unavoidable, Flash gives it the surprise and post- Day's Undoing play. This will be a three-mana white Vindicate surprisingly often, but that isn't a negligible effect. Also a very valid kill condition.
Notion Thief Absurdly powerful and heavily underrated because of it's mana cost. Very capable of locking opponents out of the game, especially when they're on the "keep an ok hand and brainstorm" plan (ridiculously common) or when their deck depends on cantrips (Hello, Storm!) Combos beautifully with Day's Undoing (No hand or graveyard for you, 14 cards for me) and Dack Fayden (You discard two, I'll draw two. Every turn. Forever.) Makes JTMS and Brainstorm actually terrible, great at assassinating all the walkers, ponder, preordain and git probe are all extremely suboptimal once this is on the board, griselbrand is just a fat lifelinker... The possiblities are endless and beautiful.
Vindicate Your All-Purpose NO button. The only permanents in the format this DOESN'T deal with are Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Blightsteel Colossus, Nimble Mongoose, True-Name Nemisis, and Inkwell Leviathan. Two get owned by dack, one gets eaten by EE/Chalice post board, and ALL of them are useless in the face of Ensnaring Bridge. On the upside, this'll blow up the lands they need to get to any of the above, fair magic or not.
Ghirapur Ęther Grid Wrecks creature strategies of every stripe. Anything that plays creatures and doesn't lose to this loses to Ensnaring Bridge and/or Trinisphere+Land destruction. Kills people and planeswalkers. Makes that chrome mox you dropped with no imprint to turn on Metalcraft relevant, and lets all those other hate permanents and lands kill your opponent and his creatures/walkers. Incredibly powerful with the mana base and hate suite.
Crucible of Worlds: Cements the wasteland/GQ lock, helps stabilize the mana, just generally good.
Ensnaring Bridge: Stops those big, terrible things sneak and show, reanimator, telve post and mud do from mattering, Also happens to make Goyf and Gurmag Angler fairly irrelevant. And, really, with the way this deck empties it's hand, it also stops elves, pyromancer, delver, TNN, batterskull... do I really need to keep going?
The Dig
Day's Undoing So, all that card advantage you're giving up to get three mana early? Want to recover it? How about locking your opponent into hellbent with no graveyard? What about forcing them to mulligan that perfect seven they ripped into whatever the hell they draw off a new shuffle? Day's Undoing does all of these things, and more. The card advantage is real here. Emptying your hand is disgustingly eary with this deck, even with a 3ball on board, and Day's undoing lets you reload into all of the hate while wiping out their yard. You'll cast this with a 3ball and opponent at no land a LOT. It does work.
Trinisphere: The almighty 3ball. An absolute beating against the format, especially T1 backed by wasteland + crucible (game over?) This does actual everything for you: It's a must-counter against a huge portion of the format, which lets you bait counterspell like a boss (Then play the piece of hate that actually ends the game), or resolves and makes their counterspells useless or the opponent's rocks useless, or their delvers terrible, or... I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. Iit really is the almighty 3ball. This is basically ALWAYS a good play.
Dack Fayden: Primarily for the dig. Helps with several problem permanents, either by grabbing them for sacrificial blocks, game ending returns, or simple hate. Beautiful combo with Notion Thief for card advantage and opponent discard, but be careful of Bolt/STP in response. Very good for baiting counterspells and great fixing on a Chrome.
Tezzerert, Agent of Bolas: Card advantage, dig, board presence, and a lethal ult that also lets you stabilize; Tezz is ALL value here. Very powerful card.
The Board
Academy Ruins: Helps keep the hate flowing through Abrupt Decay and Force of Will decks. Bring it in if you expect a heavy midgame or lots of grips/decays/forces/claims.
Aura of Silence: Proactive AND reactive hate against the other artifact decks of the format. Kills needles, null rods, and a host of other annoying permanents that make your life difficult, and makes them much harder to get out to begin with.
Chalice of the Void: This is probably the best Chalice deck in the format. Chalice on 2 is as viable as on 1, and nearly as easy to play. Game ending against about half the format.Much better on the play than the draw, but usually worth bring a few in anyway.
Dack Fayden: Extra for the SFM/Midrange/MUD/D&T. Also good against anything you think will go long and want the extra card filtering in.
Engineered Explosives: Good against Elves, D&T, and as a general removal spell (Pithing needle, I'm looking at you). Not as good as it normally is against Tokens because of the high number of 0-mana permanents you have in the deck, but still a good 'oh shit' button..Comes in any time you want more removal or expect permanent-based hate.
Meddling Mage: Generally good card against the format and good at stopping Abrupt Decay.
Spellskite: Great against Infect and Burn and helps keep those pesky abrupt decay decks from wrecking your face. Makes the Bolts they kept in extremely sub-optimal. Blocks like a champ. Recurrable with Academy Ruins.
Matchups
Infect
One of the more difficult tempo matchups. Wasteland and qhost quarter are quite powerful here, as their low mana count lets us lock them out of the game fairly often, and stops Inkmoth and Pendlehaven from killing you. Be careful not to get blown out by a crop rotation or Vines. Day's Undoing plays interestingly; casting it when they have an infecter on board is usually game over, but casting it before will let you reload in relative safety. Grid locks them out of the game hard. Trinisphere is much more relevant than you would intially expect, but remember that Become Immense gets around the tax effect. Don't be afraid to flash in your creatures to assassinate theirs. Ensnaring Bridge is surprisingly useful; keeping your hand empty to kill their main plan goes a long way. They will kill you with nobles if you can't find an answer. Post board, watch out for Needles and their glut of artifact/enchantment removal. Spellskite is an all-star.
Delver
Generally favorable. Abrupt decay from the Green variants is a pain. Significantly more favorable on the play when you can lock them out before they play a threat.
Canadian Thresh
Probably our best Delver matchup. Day's Undoing does a lot of work here, putting Goyf in range of Grid and shrinking Goose to a tiny threat. Extremely vulnerable to the land destruction plan, keep an eye on how many colored sources they have left in the deck and consider sandbagging Day's if it means giving them back their mana base. Ensnaring bridge is a great way to stay alive, but beware of dropping to death by bolt. Your creatures do a lot of work assassinating theirs, shitting all over their game plan, and absorbing bolts you don't want pointed at your face. Tezzeret clogs up the ground very well and his ult helps keep you out of bolt range. Post-board, beware the artifact removal. Chalice on one wins games, Skite blocks for days and absorbs kill spells, and Engineered Explosives kills all of their threats. Beware of Life from the Loam making your mana denial plan ineffective. Their glt of counterspells makes Academy Ruins a very strong card.
BURg
This version is probably the most difficult variant. Gurmag Angler is a quick clock that avoids the 3ball tax but gets stalemated by Bridge and Tezz. Deathright is a bit of a pain, but fairly slow to kill you. Grid is an all-star. Otherwise, plays like every other delver matchup without the annoyance that is the hard-to-kill Mongoose. Watch out for discard post board and make sure your hand can survive a turn one Thoughtseize, whether from the card itself or a lucky Therapy. Chalice is great, as always, and EE helps keep their board steady and under control. Spellskite helps mitigate the ten billion Decays and keep Thieves/3balls/Chalice alive.
Patriot Delver
Needs testing. Can't imagine it's bad. Boarding is probably much more reminicient of Stoneblade than other Delver decks.
Team America
Needs testing. Probably very similar to BURg without the reach of Bolt and more Decays.
Miracles
Ridiculously good. Grid kills all their wincons except Entreat; preboard Ensnaring Bridge stops that plan, and post board EE blows them all to hell. Their best game plan is an early entreat. Don't be afraid to Vindicate solitary Angel tokens. Notion Thief laughs at Jace. Be careful if you lock them out with Bridge; Notion thief can turn it back on for them. Don't be afraid to kill your own thieves with Grid if you have to. Council's Judgement is annoying. Don't be afraid to aggressively play redundant hate. Mostly, they can't put an effective clock on you. Punish them with a slow death by Grid.
Storm
ANT
Ridiculously good. Like infect and other fast combo decks, they can still get under you, but their window is VERY small. Day's Undoing is suprisingly safe, as they often need to sculpt a fresh seven to go off and removing their yard resets a lot of their prep. Notion Thief, 3ball and Mindcensor all wreck their day. Dack is great for forcing them to pop their rocks early once they realize what you're doing. Post board, beware of turn one discard wrecking your hand, early Empty the Warrens forcing you to go deep on Aether Grid, and ten billion abrupt decay. Chalice and Aura of Silence do work here.
TES
See above, but be even more scared of early Empties. Mana destruction is absurdly good. (I have very limited testing here; other opinions are welcome.)
Burn
Needs more testing. Trinispher acts much like Rule of Law against them, and often slows them enough for you to stabilize or lock them out. Prioritize Tezz, his ult makes him a must kill. Post Board, Chalice and Spellskite do work.
Go Big Combo
Ensnaring Bridge is the name of the game here. As soon as you can land it safely, do so.
Sneak and Show
Needs More Testing. Often worth keeping your Bridge for when they Show. The overwhelming majority of S&S decks simply can't beat it pre-board. Like most combo matchups, Notion Thief does a ton of work, with the added benefit of making Gdaddy laughable. As always, be careful to keep your bridge online when Notion Thief is out. Mana Destruction and 3ball will hopefully slow them down enough to let you find the Bridge. Remember not to scoop until you're dead; you'll often find a bridge in the turns they spend looking for a fatty after a successful Sneak activation. Aura of Silence post board makes Sneak much more difficult. Get a clock on them ASAP. Chalice is good but not unbeatable here.
Reanimator
Needs More Testing. See above, but with the added benifit of Day's wiping out their yard and the annoyance that is Decay post board. Skites over Aura on the board and be careful against the turn one thoughtseize. Remember that Mindcensor shuts off Entomb. Chalice is significantly more effective against them, and you are one of very few decks that can quckly, easily and profitably set it to 2.
MUD
Needs more testing. Pre-board they generally won't know to set their chalices at 0, so that helps. The coin flip is very important. Dack is an all-star. Aura out of the board is highly profitable. You play 8 strip mine, use them.
12Post
Needs More Testing. Another deck where your 8 strip mines do work. Dack-ing Candelabra can put a huge dent in their plans, and, as with miracles, clever timing with Dack and Mindcensor can force them to bury their Top. Much more effective here where they need their lands in the face of your mana denial. Boarding in Aura is probably worth it.
Midrange
These all need more testing. Most of these decks love abrupt decay, which is very annoying. Spellskite is good post board for clogging up the ground and keeping their decays ineffective. Mana Denial is huge, because almost all these decks are incredibly greedy with their mana bases. Think before you kill their Bob if their mana is tied up hard; card advantage isn't as big a deal when you play Day's undoing. That said, Notion thief is very good at flipping CA swings on their heads and locking an opponent out of the game, and is possibly the best response to JtMS ever printed. Grid, Thief and Tezz tend to define these matches. You live and die on the sequencing of your threats; save the highest impact for last unless you expect to get Thoughtsiezed or Hymned. Trinisphere is generally lower-impact but problematic enough that they almost always burn the counterspell on it and makes them much harder to play if they don't, so it's generally the best first threat. Practice, learn to read your opponent, and practice more. These decks are designed to be 50/50 against the field and let you capitalize on player skill. Make sure you aren't at a disadvantage on that front. Remember they play thoughtsieze when deciding whether to mulligan.
Esper Stoneblade
Revel in their lack of Abrupt Decay, and punish them for trying to play a more stable mana base. Dack their equipment to suit up your guys for fun and profit. Grid continues to over perform. TNN is a pain and puts you on a Bridge or Die plan very quickly, although you can often race it, especially if they're playing Bob. Watch out for Needle effects post-board
Deathblade
Same as above, but with a shittier manabase. Prioritize keeping them off green to make Abrupt Decay a non-issue.
Shardless BUG
The Blue Jund Menace. Trinisphere is much better here because of it's interaction with Cascade. Notion thief-ing Ancestral is almost as good as notion thief-ing brainstorm.
Punishing Jund
Trinisphere, LD and Ensnaring Bridge are your most powerful cards. Punishing Fire makes your creatures significantly less effective, don't be afraid to trade them for your opponent's often and early. Notion thief is especially useless, although it does turn Library off.
Stompy
Death and Taxes
The plan here is to go under them. Their lock takes time; don't give them any. Revoker is annoying and should be killed on sight whenever possible. Grid is a house and post board EE does work. Ensnaring Bridge is very good here. Again, Notion thief isn't very effective and will often be flashed in to block and kill something annoying. Dack does a lot of work. Aura of Silence comes in to soak Revokers and delay/kill other annoying permanents (Looking at you, Vial.)
Fish
No testing, very dependent on the fish build.
All other Stompy Decks
You are generally just faster than they are, so try to go under them. Ensnaring Bridge tends to be difficult for them to deal with. Post board they WILL chalice on 0, so be prepared for that. Aura of Silence helps a lot
Lands
No testing at all.
Combo Lands
Mindcensor shuts off their tutor package when it lives, Day's Undoing wipes out their yard, and you play more Wasteland effects than they do. The coin flip seems incredibly important. Not gonna lie, this is probably not a great matchup, but I have zero testing to support. Post board they have a billion Grips and you have Spellskite and Chalice on 1 & 2.
Control Lands
See above but much slower, and they're likely to have chalice of their own. *shug*
Elves
Limited testing. Grid does work and Ensnaring Bridge makes their endgame plan rather wobbly. Post board chalice and EE do work.
Painter
No Testing. Blood Moon seems very mediocre. Keep Painter killed dead. Welder is probably very annoying, especially with an artifact land in the yard.
Dredge
Manaless
No Testing. Day's Undoing should do work, and Notion Thief stops them from turboing their deck into their yard. Grid lets you kill your own creatures to blow their bridges and maybe snipe narcomebae before they can profit too greatly.3ball stops flashback shenanigans and Ensnaring Bridge hampers their plan B.
LED Dredge
No Testing. See Above, but notion thief is twice as good and they won't be able to combo kill you through a bridge as often.
T1 Glass Cannon Combo
No Testing. Get that T1 3ball. Post Board, chalice on 0 stops a lot of the nonsense at the cost of slowing you WAAAAAAY down. Sequence appropriately.
I do not have unlimited time, money, or access to the entire format, and as such my testing hasn't been exhaustive. If you have other matchup info to contribute, please do.
Other Card Choices
Reforge the Soul, Diminishing ReturnsThese are the other playable Wheel effects in the format. Of them, I've found Reforge to be the most effective by a lot.
Leonin Arbiter: The other 'No Search' effect. I found Flash and Flying to be more relevant, and they can pay the tax about as often as they find something in the top 4 through the Mindcensor. YMMV.
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant: Ridiculously easy to flip. Might be better in the board than Meddling Mage, which hasn't been ideal for me in playtesting.
Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Arcane Sanctum, Ethersworn Canonist: I don't think these do anything for the deck that Trinisphere doesn't already do. Combo with Erayo to effectively completely lock your opponent out of the game, but 3ball and Crucible do that too,
Dust Bowl: An alternative to some number of Ghost Quarter in the main. The mana cost is steep and the card plays best with Crucible in play. Probably worth testing.
Phyrexian Revoker: Another alternative to Mages, and our preferred Needle effect. Probably a meta call, although the meta seems real good for it now. YMMV.
Scourglass: I think the timing restriction along with the mana cost makes this unplayable, but people have liked it against the midrange decks and heavy creature matches. YMMV.
Nether Void: For when our almighty 3ball just isn't enough. Six mana can very realistically lock you out of the game too. YMMV.
Rest in Peace, Tormad's Crypt, Leyline of the Void:Extra grave hate. I haven't particularly wanted it in any of my matchups. Leyline is probably the best of these, especially since it's relatively easy to hardcast in this deck.
Slaughter Games Uncountable way to permanently get rid of things that are annoying or problematic, like abrupt decay, life from the loam, and clutch combo pieces. Possibly better than meddling mage purely because of how hard it is to stop.
Stranglehold: Another 'No Search' effect. Notable for also negating Emrakul's cast trigger. Probably not good enough unless someone makes a legacy viable Taking Turns brew.
Karmic Justice: An interesting solution to the Abrupt Decay/Pernicious Deed problem. May also be good against general artifact hate. Probably worth testing in the Aura of Silence slot.
transmute artifact: tutor engine. Turns useless hate into super effective hate. Not too difficult to hit the 5 mana needed to turn dead moxen into 3balls or bridges or crucible. Needs testing.
Regardless of what the deck WAS, what is is now is a boat full of hate, capable of playing through almost anything to lock an opponent out of the game and kill people dead. It has game against every single tier-one deck, most of them with extremely positive matchups, and is just generally brutal against Legacy as a format. The game plan is fairly simple: Get to three mana (preferably turn one), play a game-breaking hate card, kill your opponent. The deck plays a powerful and diverse hate suit, and plays it more effectively than any other deck in the format.
With that out of the way, here's the current list:
// Deck: Moxen Mass (NoG Mass) (60)
// Lands
1 Ancient Den
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Glimmervoid
1 Great Furnace
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
4 Wasteland
// Creatures
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Notion Thief
// Sorceries
4 Day's Undoing
4 Vindicate
// Enchantments
3 Ghirapur Ęther Grid
// Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Diamond
3 Mox Opal
3 Trinisphere
// Planeswalkers
1 Dack Fayden
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Academy Ruins
SB: 2 Aura of Silence
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 1 Dack Fayden
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Meddling Mage
SB: 2 Spellskite
The Card Choices
Maindeck
The Mana
Wasteland & Ghost Quarter: These are your primary mana denial plan. Also phenomenal at killing utility lands of all stripes. Ghost Quarter are wastelands 5-8; any deck that GQ isn't a strip mine against has plenty of utility lands that you want to kill anyway or plays Blood Moon (or is called Miracles, but we'll get to that.)
Artifact Lands (Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, Ancient Den, Vault of Whispers): These help fix your mana, turn on Mox Opal, give you lands to hit with Tezzeret, and kill people with Grid. Worth considering playing more that 4, but null rod is a real card and we only want to get blown out so much.
Ancient Tomb: The Sol Land of choice. The life loss is non-ideal, but it's one last way to hit three mana turn one, makes 4 mana turn one much more feasible, and helps you power out rocks and spells under a 3ball. Also helps get you where you need to be if they play Null Rod//Chalice on 0.
Glimmervoid: Effectively a zero-downside rainbow land. There will be awkward hands where getting your turn one play forced means losing your Voids. This just hammers home how important sequencing is with this deck.
The Hate
Aven Mindcensor: The keystone for the land destruction package. The search hate is effective and unavoidable, Flash gives it the surprise and post- Day's Undoing play. This will be a three-mana white Vindicate surprisingly often, but that isn't a negligible effect. Also a very valid kill condition.
Notion Thief Absurdly powerful and heavily underrated because of it's mana cost. Very capable of locking opponents out of the game, especially when they're on the "keep an ok hand and brainstorm" plan (ridiculously common) or when their deck depends on cantrips (Hello, Storm!) Combos beautifully with Day's Undoing (No hand or graveyard for you, 14 cards for me) and Dack Fayden (You discard two, I'll draw two. Every turn. Forever.) Makes JTMS and Brainstorm actually terrible, great at assassinating all the walkers, ponder, preordain and git probe are all extremely suboptimal once this is on the board, griselbrand is just a fat lifelinker... The possiblities are endless and beautiful.
Vindicate Your All-Purpose NO button. The only permanents in the format this DOESN'T deal with are Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Blightsteel Colossus, Nimble Mongoose, True-Name Nemisis, and Inkwell Leviathan. Two get owned by dack, one gets eaten by EE/Chalice post board, and ALL of them are useless in the face of Ensnaring Bridge. On the upside, this'll blow up the lands they need to get to any of the above, fair magic or not.
Ghirapur Ęther Grid Wrecks creature strategies of every stripe. Anything that plays creatures and doesn't lose to this loses to Ensnaring Bridge and/or Trinisphere+Land destruction. Kills people and planeswalkers. Makes that chrome mox you dropped with no imprint to turn on Metalcraft relevant, and lets all those other hate permanents and lands kill your opponent and his creatures/walkers. Incredibly powerful with the mana base and hate suite.
Crucible of Worlds: Cements the wasteland/GQ lock, helps stabilize the mana, just generally good.
Ensnaring Bridge: Stops those big, terrible things sneak and show, reanimator, telve post and mud do from mattering, Also happens to make Goyf and Gurmag Angler fairly irrelevant. And, really, with the way this deck empties it's hand, it also stops elves, pyromancer, delver, TNN, batterskull... do I really need to keep going?
The Dig
Day's Undoing So, all that card advantage you're giving up to get three mana early? Want to recover it? How about locking your opponent into hellbent with no graveyard? What about forcing them to mulligan that perfect seven they ripped into whatever the hell they draw off a new shuffle? Day's Undoing does all of these things, and more. The card advantage is real here. Emptying your hand is disgustingly eary with this deck, even with a 3ball on board, and Day's undoing lets you reload into all of the hate while wiping out their yard. You'll cast this with a 3ball and opponent at no land a LOT. It does work.
Trinisphere: The almighty 3ball. An absolute beating against the format, especially T1 backed by wasteland + crucible (game over?) This does actual everything for you: It's a must-counter against a huge portion of the format, which lets you bait counterspell like a boss (Then play the piece of hate that actually ends the game), or resolves and makes their counterspells useless or the opponent's rocks useless, or their delvers terrible, or... I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. Iit really is the almighty 3ball. This is basically ALWAYS a good play.
Dack Fayden: Primarily for the dig. Helps with several problem permanents, either by grabbing them for sacrificial blocks, game ending returns, or simple hate. Beautiful combo with Notion Thief for card advantage and opponent discard, but be careful of Bolt/STP in response. Very good for baiting counterspells and great fixing on a Chrome.
Tezzerert, Agent of Bolas: Card advantage, dig, board presence, and a lethal ult that also lets you stabilize; Tezz is ALL value here. Very powerful card.
The Board
Academy Ruins: Helps keep the hate flowing through Abrupt Decay and Force of Will decks. Bring it in if you expect a heavy midgame or lots of grips/decays/forces/claims.
Aura of Silence: Proactive AND reactive hate against the other artifact decks of the format. Kills needles, null rods, and a host of other annoying permanents that make your life difficult, and makes them much harder to get out to begin with.
Chalice of the Void: This is probably the best Chalice deck in the format. Chalice on 2 is as viable as on 1, and nearly as easy to play. Game ending against about half the format.Much better on the play than the draw, but usually worth bring a few in anyway.
Dack Fayden: Extra for the SFM/Midrange/MUD/D&T. Also good against anything you think will go long and want the extra card filtering in.
Engineered Explosives: Good against Elves, D&T, and as a general removal spell (Pithing needle, I'm looking at you). Not as good as it normally is against Tokens because of the high number of 0-mana permanents you have in the deck, but still a good 'oh shit' button..Comes in any time you want more removal or expect permanent-based hate.
Meddling Mage: Generally good card against the format and good at stopping Abrupt Decay.
Spellskite: Great against Infect and Burn and helps keep those pesky abrupt decay decks from wrecking your face. Makes the Bolts they kept in extremely sub-optimal. Blocks like a champ. Recurrable with Academy Ruins.
Matchups
Infect
One of the more difficult tempo matchups. Wasteland and qhost quarter are quite powerful here, as their low mana count lets us lock them out of the game fairly often, and stops Inkmoth and Pendlehaven from killing you. Be careful not to get blown out by a crop rotation or Vines. Day's Undoing plays interestingly; casting it when they have an infecter on board is usually game over, but casting it before will let you reload in relative safety. Grid locks them out of the game hard. Trinisphere is much more relevant than you would intially expect, but remember that Become Immense gets around the tax effect. Don't be afraid to flash in your creatures to assassinate theirs. Ensnaring Bridge is surprisingly useful; keeping your hand empty to kill their main plan goes a long way. They will kill you with nobles if you can't find an answer. Post board, watch out for Needles and their glut of artifact/enchantment removal. Spellskite is an all-star.
Delver
Generally favorable. Abrupt decay from the Green variants is a pain. Significantly more favorable on the play when you can lock them out before they play a threat.
Canadian Thresh
Probably our best Delver matchup. Day's Undoing does a lot of work here, putting Goyf in range of Grid and shrinking Goose to a tiny threat. Extremely vulnerable to the land destruction plan, keep an eye on how many colored sources they have left in the deck and consider sandbagging Day's if it means giving them back their mana base. Ensnaring bridge is a great way to stay alive, but beware of dropping to death by bolt. Your creatures do a lot of work assassinating theirs, shitting all over their game plan, and absorbing bolts you don't want pointed at your face. Tezzeret clogs up the ground very well and his ult helps keep you out of bolt range. Post-board, beware the artifact removal. Chalice on one wins games, Skite blocks for days and absorbs kill spells, and Engineered Explosives kills all of their threats. Beware of Life from the Loam making your mana denial plan ineffective. Their glt of counterspells makes Academy Ruins a very strong card.
BURg
This version is probably the most difficult variant. Gurmag Angler is a quick clock that avoids the 3ball tax but gets stalemated by Bridge and Tezz. Deathright is a bit of a pain, but fairly slow to kill you. Grid is an all-star. Otherwise, plays like every other delver matchup without the annoyance that is the hard-to-kill Mongoose. Watch out for discard post board and make sure your hand can survive a turn one Thoughtseize, whether from the card itself or a lucky Therapy. Chalice is great, as always, and EE helps keep their board steady and under control. Spellskite helps mitigate the ten billion Decays and keep Thieves/3balls/Chalice alive.
Patriot Delver
Needs testing. Can't imagine it's bad. Boarding is probably much more reminicient of Stoneblade than other Delver decks.
Team America
Needs testing. Probably very similar to BURg without the reach of Bolt and more Decays.
Miracles
Ridiculously good. Grid kills all their wincons except Entreat; preboard Ensnaring Bridge stops that plan, and post board EE blows them all to hell. Their best game plan is an early entreat. Don't be afraid to Vindicate solitary Angel tokens. Notion Thief laughs at Jace. Be careful if you lock them out with Bridge; Notion thief can turn it back on for them. Don't be afraid to kill your own thieves with Grid if you have to. Council's Judgement is annoying. Don't be afraid to aggressively play redundant hate. Mostly, they can't put an effective clock on you. Punish them with a slow death by Grid.
Storm
ANT
Ridiculously good. Like infect and other fast combo decks, they can still get under you, but their window is VERY small. Day's Undoing is suprisingly safe, as they often need to sculpt a fresh seven to go off and removing their yard resets a lot of their prep. Notion Thief, 3ball and Mindcensor all wreck their day. Dack is great for forcing them to pop their rocks early once they realize what you're doing. Post board, beware of turn one discard wrecking your hand, early Empty the Warrens forcing you to go deep on Aether Grid, and ten billion abrupt decay. Chalice and Aura of Silence do work here.
TES
See above, but be even more scared of early Empties. Mana destruction is absurdly good. (I have very limited testing here; other opinions are welcome.)
Burn
Needs more testing. Trinispher acts much like Rule of Law against them, and often slows them enough for you to stabilize or lock them out. Prioritize Tezz, his ult makes him a must kill. Post Board, Chalice and Spellskite do work.
Go Big Combo
Ensnaring Bridge is the name of the game here. As soon as you can land it safely, do so.
Sneak and Show
Needs More Testing. Often worth keeping your Bridge for when they Show. The overwhelming majority of S&S decks simply can't beat it pre-board. Like most combo matchups, Notion Thief does a ton of work, with the added benefit of making Gdaddy laughable. As always, be careful to keep your bridge online when Notion Thief is out. Mana Destruction and 3ball will hopefully slow them down enough to let you find the Bridge. Remember not to scoop until you're dead; you'll often find a bridge in the turns they spend looking for a fatty after a successful Sneak activation. Aura of Silence post board makes Sneak much more difficult. Get a clock on them ASAP. Chalice is good but not unbeatable here.
Reanimator
Needs More Testing. See above, but with the added benifit of Day's wiping out their yard and the annoyance that is Decay post board. Skites over Aura on the board and be careful against the turn one thoughtseize. Remember that Mindcensor shuts off Entomb. Chalice is significantly more effective against them, and you are one of very few decks that can quckly, easily and profitably set it to 2.
MUD
Needs more testing. Pre-board they generally won't know to set their chalices at 0, so that helps. The coin flip is very important. Dack is an all-star. Aura out of the board is highly profitable. You play 8 strip mine, use them.
12Post
Needs More Testing. Another deck where your 8 strip mines do work. Dack-ing Candelabra can put a huge dent in their plans, and, as with miracles, clever timing with Dack and Mindcensor can force them to bury their Top. Much more effective here where they need their lands in the face of your mana denial. Boarding in Aura is probably worth it.
Midrange
These all need more testing. Most of these decks love abrupt decay, which is very annoying. Spellskite is good post board for clogging up the ground and keeping their decays ineffective. Mana Denial is huge, because almost all these decks are incredibly greedy with their mana bases. Think before you kill their Bob if their mana is tied up hard; card advantage isn't as big a deal when you play Day's undoing. That said, Notion thief is very good at flipping CA swings on their heads and locking an opponent out of the game, and is possibly the best response to JtMS ever printed. Grid, Thief and Tezz tend to define these matches. You live and die on the sequencing of your threats; save the highest impact for last unless you expect to get Thoughtsiezed or Hymned. Trinisphere is generally lower-impact but problematic enough that they almost always burn the counterspell on it and makes them much harder to play if they don't, so it's generally the best first threat. Practice, learn to read your opponent, and practice more. These decks are designed to be 50/50 against the field and let you capitalize on player skill. Make sure you aren't at a disadvantage on that front. Remember they play thoughtsieze when deciding whether to mulligan.
Esper Stoneblade
Revel in their lack of Abrupt Decay, and punish them for trying to play a more stable mana base. Dack their equipment to suit up your guys for fun and profit. Grid continues to over perform. TNN is a pain and puts you on a Bridge or Die plan very quickly, although you can often race it, especially if they're playing Bob. Watch out for Needle effects post-board
Deathblade
Same as above, but with a shittier manabase. Prioritize keeping them off green to make Abrupt Decay a non-issue.
Shardless BUG
The Blue Jund Menace. Trinisphere is much better here because of it's interaction with Cascade. Notion thief-ing Ancestral is almost as good as notion thief-ing brainstorm.
Punishing Jund
Trinisphere, LD and Ensnaring Bridge are your most powerful cards. Punishing Fire makes your creatures significantly less effective, don't be afraid to trade them for your opponent's often and early. Notion thief is especially useless, although it does turn Library off.
Stompy
Death and Taxes
The plan here is to go under them. Their lock takes time; don't give them any. Revoker is annoying and should be killed on sight whenever possible. Grid is a house and post board EE does work. Ensnaring Bridge is very good here. Again, Notion thief isn't very effective and will often be flashed in to block and kill something annoying. Dack does a lot of work. Aura of Silence comes in to soak Revokers and delay/kill other annoying permanents (Looking at you, Vial.)
Fish
No testing, very dependent on the fish build.
All other Stompy Decks
You are generally just faster than they are, so try to go under them. Ensnaring Bridge tends to be difficult for them to deal with. Post board they WILL chalice on 0, so be prepared for that. Aura of Silence helps a lot
Lands
No testing at all.
Combo Lands
Mindcensor shuts off their tutor package when it lives, Day's Undoing wipes out their yard, and you play more Wasteland effects than they do. The coin flip seems incredibly important. Not gonna lie, this is probably not a great matchup, but I have zero testing to support. Post board they have a billion Grips and you have Spellskite and Chalice on 1 & 2.
Control Lands
See above but much slower, and they're likely to have chalice of their own. *shug*
Elves
Limited testing. Grid does work and Ensnaring Bridge makes their endgame plan rather wobbly. Post board chalice and EE do work.
Painter
No Testing. Blood Moon seems very mediocre. Keep Painter killed dead. Welder is probably very annoying, especially with an artifact land in the yard.
Dredge
Manaless
No Testing. Day's Undoing should do work, and Notion Thief stops them from turboing their deck into their yard. Grid lets you kill your own creatures to blow their bridges and maybe snipe narcomebae before they can profit too greatly.3ball stops flashback shenanigans and Ensnaring Bridge hampers their plan B.
LED Dredge
No Testing. See Above, but notion thief is twice as good and they won't be able to combo kill you through a bridge as often.
T1 Glass Cannon Combo
No Testing. Get that T1 3ball. Post Board, chalice on 0 stops a lot of the nonsense at the cost of slowing you WAAAAAAY down. Sequence appropriately.
I do not have unlimited time, money, or access to the entire format, and as such my testing hasn't been exhaustive. If you have other matchup info to contribute, please do.
Other Card Choices
Reforge the Soul, Diminishing ReturnsThese are the other playable Wheel effects in the format. Of them, I've found Reforge to be the most effective by a lot.
Leonin Arbiter: The other 'No Search' effect. I found Flash and Flying to be more relevant, and they can pay the tax about as often as they find something in the top 4 through the Mindcensor. YMMV.
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant: Ridiculously easy to flip. Might be better in the board than Meddling Mage, which hasn't been ideal for me in playtesting.
Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Arcane Sanctum, Ethersworn Canonist: I don't think these do anything for the deck that Trinisphere doesn't already do. Combo with Erayo to effectively completely lock your opponent out of the game, but 3ball and Crucible do that too,
Dust Bowl: An alternative to some number of Ghost Quarter in the main. The mana cost is steep and the card plays best with Crucible in play. Probably worth testing.
Phyrexian Revoker: Another alternative to Mages, and our preferred Needle effect. Probably a meta call, although the meta seems real good for it now. YMMV.
Scourglass: I think the timing restriction along with the mana cost makes this unplayable, but people have liked it against the midrange decks and heavy creature matches. YMMV.
Nether Void: For when our almighty 3ball just isn't enough. Six mana can very realistically lock you out of the game too. YMMV.
Rest in Peace, Tormad's Crypt, Leyline of the Void:Extra grave hate. I haven't particularly wanted it in any of my matchups. Leyline is probably the best of these, especially since it's relatively easy to hardcast in this deck.
Slaughter Games Uncountable way to permanently get rid of things that are annoying or problematic, like abrupt decay, life from the loam, and clutch combo pieces. Possibly better than meddling mage purely because of how hard it is to stop.
Stranglehold: Another 'No Search' effect. Notable for also negating Emrakul's cast trigger. Probably not good enough unless someone makes a legacy viable Taking Turns brew.
Karmic Justice: An interesting solution to the Abrupt Decay/Pernicious Deed problem. May also be good against general artifact hate. Probably worth testing in the Aura of Silence slot.
transmute artifact: tutor engine. Turns useless hate into super effective hate. Not too difficult to hit the 5 mana needed to turn dead moxen into 3balls or bridges or crucible. Needs testing.